The secret benefits of mixing in mono

[leedsquietman]

Do you people not keep up with the times. It is not only NOT unusual for pop and RNB recordings to run 100 tracks or more, it is THE NORM.

Example (courtesy of Sound On Sound interview with engineer/mixer Peter Mokran August 2009)
‘Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)’
Written by AR Rahman, Gulzar, Nicole Scherzinger, Ron Fair
Produced by Ron Fair and Nicole Scherzinger

The Pro Tools file with which Ron Fair walked into Mokran’s studio one day last February was notable for a number of reasons. Consisting of 100-plus stereo and mono music tracks, the Edit window looked like a patchwork of small bits and pieces. Only the first seven of the 17 drum tracks, as well as a synth bass track, were playing for most of the song. In addition, there were 44 stereo and eight mono vocals tracks, in effect making 96 vocal tracks. Many of them also occurred only for brief moments. Despite this enormous number of often bitty tracks, Mokran maintains that it wasn’t an overly complex mix. This is a picture of the PT arrange page.



Dylan '3D' Dresdow talks about Black Eyed Peas last album The End in July 2009. Even a simple track like Boob-Boom-Pow.
“The total number of tracks on ‘Boom Boom Pow’ was about 84. These include all the different drums, the synths, and the vocals and backing vocals. We also did several remixes of ‘Boom Boom Pow’ that will be released on an EP. We really tried to go for a different sound with the remixes, and some of them, quite frankly, ended up being almost new songs. At the same time, many of the effects that I used on ‘Boom Boom Pow’ were used on the whole album, they were a kind of common thread, and helped to make the album sound consistent. In general, while mixing, being organic-sounding was not a goal. Being 3008, in 2009, was.”

[leedsquietman]

I'm not saying I support this, or don't find it crazy. I've done tracks that ran 60 tracks but try to keep to around 32 tracks, 8 groups and 8-10 FX send/reurn channels where possible. (so around 50 tracks in total).

Mixing in mono, or at least checking in mono with one speaker, is something I've been doing since I learned it in Music Tech courses in 1989. And there can definately be a sweet spot, hi-hats are particularly well defined in mono on one speaker and when you find the mono sweet spot, it translates really well to stereo panning.

[leedsquietman]

On my alternative rock album 'Autoimmune' this was the lowest track count song I did


and this was just off my laptop screen, there were 7 more send FX, taking the total to 31 tracks.

The track is not a complicated one either in terms of arrangement and melody. There are only 17 tracks including 6 drum tracks, 4 vox and 4 guitar, the other 14 tracks are busses and FX channels, as shown here (gotta love folder/group tracks)


Many people using Live are running more tracks than they anticipate, people think they're only running 12 tracks etc, but forget that with a drum rack, each channel within the drum rack is the equivalent of an audio track, so that 12 tracks becomes 24 or more tracks etc (assuming you are using more than half a dozen sounds, which is likely - kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, ride, crash cymbal, splash, 2-4 toms, overheads and room mics and possibly percussion sounds such as shakers, tambourines or weird little blippy sounds etc). And in fact, it takes more CPU load to have the drum rack running live, than to render all the drum rack channels to seperate audio tracks. Given this information, I would say most Live projects are the equivalent of at least 24-30 tracks, even if they are quite minimal and with no vocals.

[evon]

Yes Lead, I see where you're goin. That C shot really looks good.

[Oscar F]

I generally don't run past 24 Midi Track in total before i start rendering clips to Audio for further use.
I also tend to do mix downs of the drum tracks once happy with them other wise I'd never totally commit to certain sonic elements and spend the rest of my life on a never ending tweak fest.
Very rarely end up with more than 16-24 audio tracks on my pre-final mix composition and have been known to have only 12-14 tracks in composition.
Automation on the other hand is a bit 'mother of god', how do you follow all that ( or at least it's the reaction received in past).
Though I understand where you are coming from as I use Reason an awful lot and what's being rewired into LIVE would make for a stupendous track count if not for Combinators, sub mixers and the like.

[buckman]

Had a quick read through this and its interesting...

On a side note to this topic, how many of you "record" samples, loops and sounds in mono in the timeline to mixdown to a stereo 2-track file?

Ive always recorded stereo tracks just because of todays DAW space and being lazy, but is it more benficial and easiier to mix if i record tracks in mono, use stereo fx to make a great stereo master??

How do you record to live's arrangement view to make tracks, and remixes etc?

[sporkles]

^^ I would think that depends entirely on the material you're recording. If you're recording a train passing by, I'd
say stereo is a no-brainer. If you want to capture the original ambience, go for stereo.

[buckman]

Thanks but i only record internal audio samples and audio rendering and nothing acoustic as such

Would it be easier to mix if i do my pads, drums and samples in mono (with stereo fx) to a standard stereo master?

[buzby]

im in a friends studio and having a go at mixing in mono but wondering about a few things

my sound card is connected to spl sound monitor controller -

do i need to have the mono settings on the spl activated ? - there is a mono L/R button and also a stereo monitors button

also there is a mono button on my sound card - do i need to have this activated as well ?

at the moment im not really experiencing the effects described in the opening text of this thread ..

[e.g.:]

Panning made easier

After getting your basic panning done in stereo, it's a great time to switch to mono to fine tune things. If you are looking for the "sweet" spot to put an instrument in the stereo field, do it in mono. As you make minor panning adjustments in mono, suddenly a clear spot will pop out at you. That is the spot! Mono reveals when an instrument is fighting for position or frequency much more easily. Try it!

I don't get this, if you are in mono how panning would change anything?

yeah, explain please. i am interested in this mono malarky

Just try it.

[buckman]

Would this be the same as pressing the mono switch (say on Reaper) on the master channel it has a mono downmix so the output becomes mono and switching off ONE of your speakers so everything comes out of the Left monitor (in mono mode also)

If I sit just infront of this one speaker, is this the same as your saying with having a single monitor in front of you? Or do i not need to even press the mono button?

Would a single (left) speaker do the trick?

PS> im not sure i understand about panning in mono/1 speaker? surely the panning sounds the same in mono until it vanishes?